Flushed Away (DVD)

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The Music of Flushed Away. A straightforward documentary about the composing of the music featured. This is not interesting unless you are a real music buff.

Meet the Cast. This shows several of the voice actors performing at the microphone in a split screen with their animated character. For me, it kind of takes away the magic to see the real people talking in their characters' voices. It maybe quite interesting to put a face ...
...DreamWorks kids

Flushed Away Tunes. In this section were exactly the same Slug Songs as featured above in Super Slug Stuff. Yes that's right a repeat within the Extras! Plus there is Flushed Away juke box where you can see again the scenes featuring songs. Good if you just like the musical parts.

Build a slug. This has a very skilled animator talk you through how to model a plasticine slug that looked just like one from ... more

**Now that the DVD is out, this review has been updated from Film Only to DVD version to include details of the Extras**

Last weekend, my daughter completed her star chart for completing maths homework and learning the times table. The reward that she chose was a visit to the cinema. She chose the film "Flushed Away" on two premises. Firstly, that it sounded like a toilet and secondly because she knew it featured rats so her parents would freak out (aren't children wonderfully sweet things). So we duly went down to the local cinema, bought the obligatory popcorn and settled down to watch a movie about our friendly rodent chums.

This is an Aardman production without the input of Nick Park. CGI production is used instead of the normal plasticine though the animation is made to look like the familiar plasticine figures seen in Wallace & Gromitt, Creature Comforts and Chicken Run. The hair and the big lips are the biggest parallel similarities. This was kind of off putting at first but was soon got used to. In fact my partner didn't even notice! As for the use of rats as the stars, we needn't have worried. These are very cartoonised and look nothing like the real thing. You wouldn't even know that they were rats without the situation and the prior knowledge.

The story centres on a house pet rat called Roddy. He has an easy life in a big cage in a big house in the posh area of Kensington in London. The family who own him go away on holiday leaving him the run of the place in their absence. He is not restricted to his big cage, as he knows how to get out of it. He plays with the child's dolls, treating them as real even though they do not respond.

This beginning worried me. It seemed rather dull even though I understood that it was the scene setting of Roddy's lonely existence. His life is then rudely interrupted by the arrival of a sewer rat. (I didn't quite understand how he got in). Roddy is an upper class twit (as stereotypical as his surroundings) who thinks he can easily outwit this lower class oik by fooling him into thinking the toilet is a Jacuzzi. Rather too obviously, the street-wise rat knows better and it is Roddy who is "Flushed Away" down to the underground world of the sewer rats. This is an underground city modelled on the real city of London above, only this time made out of rubbish. Now the film took off for me. The arrival of the slugs got my attention and attracted my interest. The occasional presence of these singing slugs (we think they were slugs but we were never quite sure) was a fascinating touch. They keep on popping up to comment on the proceedings at various points in the film. They are generally hilarious and worth looking out for. I would especially recommend looking out for the "high five" joke towards the end.

Roddy gets to meet Rita, a sassy girl rat who has her own boat, the juicily named "Jammy Dodger". Inevitably and rather obviously, initially they don't get on, mainly due to his pomposity and clumsiness but after events draw them together, they strike an uneasy deal for her to get him back home. From then on, Roddy's realisation of what his own empty life consists of begins to take root. His lonely life up top is starkly compared to the big family and friends of Rita. This is essentially the moral of the film - that the possession of worldly goods is no match for the love of friends and family. Thankfully this is not rammed down your throat; in fact I thought it was nicely conveyed in an understated manner.

There are plenty of the obligatory chase scenes that this type of film generally has but they were well done and my son said that he enjoyed them the best. For younger kids the old comedy chase seems to work every time. These scenes probably explained the use of CGI rather than their normal use of plasticine, as I can't imagine how they would have done all those water scenes otherwise. I wouldn't think plasticine and water would mix very well for special effects.

Of course there had to be baddie. In this case it happens to be a toad that has world domination on his mind. That is the underground world. He is "assisted" by a couple of hench rats and some frogs that are laughably French and wickedly and ridiculously stereotypically funny.

Once we got to the point that Roddy met Rita then I really started to enjoy the film. It may have been a regular story feature but that is perfectly good enough for the kids. They love chases, slapstick humour and funny characters. This film has all these. It may miss the subtly and light touch of Nick Park with his ideas and models but for a funny feel-good move at holiday time, this is as good as any. It should be remembered that this is a film for kids and so there is no obligation for it to be profound, clever or subtle. However, nowadays, filmmakers do consider the grown ups dragged out to these films and there are plenty of little touches that will amuse the adults too.

The voice actors generally do a very good job. They are mostly big names but their voices blend into the characters they are portraying well so it was not immediately obvious who they were. Ironically the lead character's actor, Hugh Jackman, was perhaps the weakest voice portrayal. Kate Winslet played Rita beautifully. Perhaps we are so used to hearing her do an American accent recently; we have forgotten her natural one. Ian McKellen was rightly pompous as the villainous toad but not so over the top as he has done in other voice over roles. But those of the lesser roles stood out the most. The characters of Spike and Whitey were hilariously enhanced by their voices rendered by Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy; Jean Reno humorously played the mercenary frog and Shane Richie covered the sewer rat surprisingly well.

Running time is 85 minutes so it is just about the right length of time for the little ones and not so off-putting for the older ones. We all enjoyed it and congratulated my daughter on her choice, even if was done for less than noble reasons. We all recommend this film as nice family viewing. There is the excitement and base humour for the kids and there are older gags for the grown ups. It may not be a classic to be seen again and again but it is entertaining and sometimes that is all you need in a film for an afternoon at the cinema or at home watching a DVD.

EXTRAS

For a one disc DVD, this edition includes a surprisingly large selection of Extras. However, most of it is material that you would only watch once at the most. Some - not even that!

Filmmakers' commentary. It is now possible to watch the film with a commentary by the filmmakers going on at the same time. I did find this surprisingly intoxicating to hear their views and ideas about what they did and why and how things evolved. It also highlighted little touches that I'd missed watching the film. Some might say, though, that nice touches are all very well but they aren't much good if they are too subtle to be noticed without having them being pointed out by the filmmaker!

The Music of Flushed Away. A straightforward documentary about the composing of the music featured. This is not interesting unless you are a real music buff.

Meet the Cast. This shows several of the voice actors performing at the microphone in a split screen with their animated character. For me, it kind of takes away the magic to see the real people talking in their characters' voices. It maybe quite interesting to put a face to a voice (oh that's who that was etc) but it also reinforced the feeling that the minor characters' voices were better acted than some of the leads.

Wallace & Gromitt - The Curse of The Were-Rabbit. This trailer on its own seems a bit cheeky as it implies its superiority to other films. I know it is also produced by Aardman but it does seem to be an over-plug.

Dreamworks Video Jukebox. As the film was made in conjunction with DreamWorks, there is access given to their animated pieces. So here are reprises of one song each from some of their films including Shrek, Shrek 2 and Sharks Tale. They are quite fun but we do have these already. After all, they are not new films. Simply put, it is advertising in a slightly more interesting way to a normal trailer.

Super Slug Stuff. I feel that too many appearances of the enigmatic slugs takes away from their mystery and charm. From the commentary, you hear that the main contribution to the film by Nick Park (ie Mr Aardman) was these slimy creatures. In this section, there are some songs (not from the film) performed by these creatures, a slug cam and some games. These games were frankly rubbish. One was to pick up a slug with a robotic arm but then nothing happens next. The sequence memory game could be better if there were not the enormous pauses as you try to play. As for the following of a real slug over a seemingly long period of time just seemed pointless.

DreamWorks kids

Flushed Away Tunes. In this section were exactly the same Slug Songs as featured above in Super Slug Stuff. Yes that's right a repeat within the Extras! Plus there is Flushed Away juke box where you can see again the scenes featuring songs. Good if you just like the musical parts.

Build a slug. This has a very skilled animator talk you through how to model a plasticine slug that looked just like one from the film. Initially, it looked like something you could do yourself but reminiscent of stuff that can be seen SMART on CBBC, I don't think you could really. It took him over thirteen minutes to show us and he is a professional and had all the equipment to hand. Also it seemed odd to be creating a model from an animation that was designed to like a model in the first place!

Learn to draw Roddy. This could be interesting for a child, or even an adult, wanting to recreate animated drawings. It looks deceptively simple.

A maze of pipes. This was supposed to be a game where you guide the boat through the underground pipes. However, it didn't really seem to work properly and when you choose the correct path it was pure luck so it was all very unsatisfying.

Shrek 3 - The trailer. Again like Wallacw & Gromitt above, a special trailer for this forthcoming film. The menu item for this was out of line with the others so I almost missed it completely. Was it an afterthought, I wonder?

So you can see that there are a seemingly generous amount of extras provided but there are not many here that will be repeated viewing. Perhaps if they had gone for quality rather than quantity and left out thinly disguised advertisements it would have been better. However do not let that undermine the fine film they are attached to.

 

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